9 Nasty Truths About Your Favorite Foods
Famous Death Row Last Meals
Photo: Charles Haynes, Flickr.
I'd never been in a restaurant kitchen until I cleared tables at The Lord Fox, a fabulously patrician eatery that still serves beef Wellington and crab-stuffed avocados. I recall having two concurrent revelations that day: Servers don't get a lunch break, and most diners leave food on their plates. To the disgust of my schoolmates who'd also landed the restaurant work gig, I nibbled on leftover steak sandwiches, ate the bacon out of BLTs and finished off any remaining French fries before rinsing the dishes.
Now that I'm a server, I still eat off cleared plates – and so do all of my coworkers. I'm not sure diners realize the dishrooms of many restaurants look like buffets by the end of service: We loathe to waste food, especially the fancy stuff.
There's a pretty precise code that governs whether your food ends up in the trash or your server's belly. We won't touch anything from a table where someone was sneezing, coughing or just generally odd: Who knows what sort of germs someone with crumbs in his moustache or an offensive slogan on his t-shirt is carrying? And, in another nod to hygiene, menu items in which a diner stabbed his fork repeatedly – such as creamy pastas or mounds of mashed potatoes – are probably headed straight to the scrape bin. (That said, some of my more voracious colleagues make a blanket exception for hot crab dip.)
But leftover mussels still in their protective casing? Absolutely. The untouched end of a filet? Sure. The better part of a crab cake? Heck, yes.
As servers, we can't often afford to feast on the steak and lobster our customers enjoy. But the leftovers are all ours.
| Yes -- that's gross! | |
|---|---|
| No -- I'm not eating it, so why not? |
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1-24-2010 @11:04AM scott said... I have worked in this industry and eating off a customers plate is a huge no-no. If you were seen by your coworkers doing this you might as well quit. You were treated like you had the plague and no one wanted to work with you. I think this story is all a lie and the writer was just looking for a story to present to the class. She did say she had Psychotherapist parents. Maybe she should have gone to work with them and layed down on the couch to work on her own issues.
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1-24-2010 @3:07PM kiwi said... I've worked at many restaurants and have never seen or heard of this happening. Nor would I ever do it myself. But if that's something you want to do... your going to do it. ew.
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1-24-2010 @5:29PM MBED3 said... I want a pro-rated discount on my bill, hell, I'm sharing it! Split the bill with me, or automatically give me a doggie bag. I'm paying for it. I'll discard it.
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1-24-2010 @11:20AM Yvette said... That's too gross. i've always worked in restaurants and part of your percs was a free meal. I have never seen anyone nor have I ever eaten off of a diners plate. I haver been a bus girl, runner, waitress and a Pantry girl in the food industry.
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1-24-2010 @11:16AM Candace said... I have no idea where these servers live..Dead food is of course fair game for all.. We will eat after othere servers BUT, NEVER do we eat off guests plates.. Hello people disease?? The absolute only time you can eat if the food hits the table is if the restuarant is homestyle and the guests never put there spoon in the item...Don't eat food that hits the table.. C'mon servers.. have some dignity!!
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1-24-2010 @11:16AM Barb said... I never thought this was going on in any resturant kitchen.That is so gross.You are ingestng other peoples germs, for goodness sake.People push food around with their forks while talking,that fork is in and out if a strangers mouth! And spoons are inside a persons mouth to be cleaned off inside that mouth.GROSS! :(
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1-24-2010 @11:19AM Bethany said... Many years ago as a wife mother of 5 small children, in a time (60s) when Drs were forbidden to give contraceptive advice even to married women, I worked as a waitress and part-time dishwasher at an upscale eatery in a southern town. Eating the "leftovers" and atking them home to my family was a cherished 'perk" of an otherwise exhausting job (75 cents an hour-no breaks no benefits) My family Dr was a regular and orTo my chagrin,my always ordered things he did not even touch-desserts, steaks, all kinds of side dishes. He would tell his companions or family "I guess my eyes are always bigger than my stomach". I secretly despised him for his wastefulness but happily toted it home.Years later, after my children were grown(4 of whom are college grads, 1 a career military man) I learned that he did this on purpose-that he knew very well that uneaten and untouched food went home with the waitress.He was a good man who was unable to do all that he wanted to do ,but he did what he could.My children never went to bed hungry, when he ate well..
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1-24-2010 @11:33AM nash. said... No offense but I think that is disgusting. You can't judge whether or not it's safe to eat off of a strangers plate on whether they look clean or not. You never know who has what these days. But that's just my opinion.
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1-24-2010 @11:26AM Sue said... what about diseases from other people
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1-24-2010 @11:26AM Rebecca said... I am a server and cannot begin to write about hepatitis B and, as mentioned in an earlier post, oral herpes, sores, etc. That is nasty and you should be fired. If you feel comfortable doing this, are you washing your hands, etc? Not only could you be infecting yourself with a DEADLY disease but then also your co-workers, patrons, etc. BTW, in the post about the Big O, i would never do that stuff with anyone i didn't know, and i CERTAINLY don't know the people i serve that well!
PS-Most places don't give the leftover food to the homeless because if somebody got sick, they could sue the dining establishement. They just throw it all away, sorry folks!
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1-24-2010 @11:44AM Alice said... Why would anyone at eat a place that would hire waiters like that? If my husband and I happen to stop at a strange restaurant while traveling, we walk out if they have Obama type people working there. Even Glenn Beck mentioned that we have to be careful since Obama's people will be out to get us when he is impeached.
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1-24-2010 @12:08PM Joel said... To Alice in Wonderland: "Obama type people"?? Does that mean what I think it means? You're one ignorant, bigoted moron. You should be ashamed for a comment like that, but if you were stupid enough to make it in the first place, I doubt you're ashamed of anything. Gosh, I must have been raised wrong...I was taught human beings are human beings, regardless of their "type". Well, I suppose that just proves that not ALL humans are really humans...some are their own very weird species who have yet to develop intelligence. By the way, I am a type who just happens to have been born caucasion, so what "type" would that be?
1-24-2010 @11:49AM Mary said... I don't always eat everything on my plate when I go to a restaurant. By the time I have eaten a salad and some bread, I am not as hungry, and rather than eat the entree' and be uncomfortable, I just leave it. Some foods I just don't care to take home and eat as left overs . There have been times I wanted to tell the Server that I did not touch the left over food and if anyone wanted it, in the kitchen, they could have it. Of course, I thought that would be really rude so I never did. I guess it just depends on how you think about it. If you are homeless and picking through dumpsters to find food or if you live in a country where children have to climb trash piles looking for food, then eating left over food from plates in a restaurant would seem like a gormet treat. Those people are not concerned with germs, only staying alive.
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1-26-2010 @12:51PM sammie said... I worked at low and high end restaurants for 20 years and never saw this happen!
If it did the offender would get fired or humiliated into never doing it again. Ali the places I ever worked offered employees a free meal or reduced price for thier shift. If your friends with the chef the will make you almost anything you want.
I have actually seen customers try this, but soooo gross!!!
I think this is done but as far as Hannah and anyone else who does it I cant believe you would actually admit it.
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1-24-2010 @11:57AM mrkoe said... During my years as a server I NEVER ate leftovers NOR did anyone else I worked with....NEVER!!!! That is disgusting and I am embarrassed for this author. Furthermore, why would any server eat off someone else's plate, when there is plenty of fresh food in the kitchen?????
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1-24-2010 @11:59AM stphnchrn said... I've been working in restaurants for over 15 years and NO ONE eats the leftovers off plates. We might eat a fry off the plate BEFORE it goes out to a table but NOT after!!!!!!!!!!!! This article disgusts me.
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1-24-2010 @12:02PM Lana said... I have been a server at several restaurants and have never seen anybody eat something from a customers plate, that's just disgusting. Servers do get a lunch or dinner break, it's mandatory by law. If that person wasn't taking a break it was because they didn't want to.
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1-24-2010 @12:02PM Maricia12 said... This is for Alice. You mentioned Obama type people. Just wondering exactly what that means. Are you referring to Democrats / Liberals / Blacks/ whites ???? He is all of those . So Glen Beck is someone you admire. No surprise there!
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1-24-2010 @12:01PM Hamburger said... If you got hungrey,you'd eat the landing gear out of a buzzards butt.
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1-24-2010 @12:12PM tuefull said... i worked in a kitchen at one of the best restruants in northern minnesota, i can tell you, hell yes we ate off the plates from the diners, one nite a lady ordered king crab, $40.00 per plate, she ate two legs, thats it, when the plate came back to the dish washers, we ate it all, the waitresses,dishwashers and busboys, fantastic,, being a 17 yr. old kid and having a dog, he ate well, we never ate soups or salads off peoples plates, but meat or fish,, every chance we got. me and my dog were well fed, he ate at least a half a pound of meat every three days from that kitchen. i was one happy dishwasher.
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